This Small Kitchen Won't Stop Me

Several months ago, when a friend came to pick up a kombucha scoby, she was peering around my kitchen and suggested that I post about using a small kitchen to produce so many things. It's a suggestion I would never have thought about and it's also an interesting subject. I think that it's easy to think one needs a large space in order to cook from scratch or do any of the other types of things I do in a kitchen. It would be wonderful to have a large, roomy kitchen with lots of storage space and huge expanses of counter space. It's not a necessity though.

I do a lot in my kitchen, in fact, sometimes I feel like I live in my kitchen. I make dinner six nights per week, daily breakfast and lunches, soap, baked goods, condiments, roast coffee, collect kitchen waste for the compost pile, ferment various things and dehydrate, freeze and can food in the summer and fall. All of these things happen on a mere nine linear feet of counter space and part of that is occupied by a microwave.

When I decided to post on this subject I thought I would get my kitchen all spiffy for photos, but I finally realized that it probably isn't going to happen. My counters are almost never uncluttered and certainly never completely clear. That being said, let me take you for a little tour of my small kitchen and please politely ignore the messy counters.

This is the counter space in my kitchen. There's about five feet of counter space to the left of the sink and about four to the right. The right counter space is kind of a holding area. It's where I store stuff that I can't figure out where else to put, like my two round cast iron griddles and my cast iron skillet which don't really have a home if I have many stove burners and the oven occupied at the same time. I use the long stretch to the left of the sink for all prep and cooking activities, coffee roasting, fermenting and coffee making. The right basin in my sink holds my yellow Tupperware compost trimmings container and is also a holding station for all recyclables before they go to the main recycling area in the basement.

This is the other side of the kitchen. It has one set of cabinets, refrigerator, oven, and a small table that holds onions, garlic, utensils and potholders on the top and my wok, cookie sheets, large cast iron griddle and cooling racks on the bottom. You can see my menu board to the right of the doorway and my open office door to the right of that. To the left of the refrigerator is my pantry, which is small. It's only slightly wider than the width of the door and slightly taller. The kitchen is too narrow for a small island, so there's nothing in the center.

We are lucky to have a basement and I have an extended pantry area down there, where I house my home canned goods, bulk purchases like sugar, beans, rice and canned goods like tuna and coconut milk and canning supplies and surplus jars. I also have a full sized upright freezer and a second small refrigerator down there. An additional storage space is a 3'w x 1'd x 4 1/2"h shelf in my office, right off the kitchen, for my kitchen appliances (mixer, food processor, etc.), a few cookbooks and empty jars that I use frequently for storage.

And that's it. It's not a large area, even all combined, but I do great things in it. I'm not the world's best cook, but I'm pretty decent and I make a lot of things for my family besides meals. You don't need a huge area to do the kinds of things that I do. If you have a small kitchen and it's been holding you back, just jump in and do it. Get rid of the things that you never use to open up space for the things you will use frequently and you might have to adjust to the fact that counter space will never be completely empty!

Menu Board

This is a board that I picked up at Goodwill for $4.99. I decided to to put it in service as our nightly menu board. This helps my family to know what we are having for dinner, which cuts down the questions a lot and assists my table setters in deciding what should go on the table. Plus, it coordinates nicely with my yellow walls, though the color of the walls is somewhat washed out in this photo. (That's the result of copious amounts of sunshine coming through my west windows. Don't let anyone tell you the sun never shines in the Pacific Northwest in the winter!)

Shortbread and Ice Cream for My Sweets

We don't make a big deal out of Valentine's Day here. I'm all about the love, but I think it's far better to demonstrate how much we love each other by treating each other with love and respect every day rather than buying cards and chocolate one day of the year. Those things are nice, but getting and giving them doesn't make me feel more loved. I do usually make a nice V-Day dinner, because that's just what I do. I love to cook. I made the last package of steaks that we had in the freezer, garlic chevre mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. I finished it off with this dessert:

Strawberry ice cream and this shortbread. It was simple, but so good.

Fresh Chevre

It's not all taxes and filing and paperwork and puppies around here. I made some fresh chevre on Sunday.


Chevre is so ridiculously easy to make. Warm up milk, add bacteria, let milk sit, sieve it and hang it and voila, you've got cheese!

Nothing to Post

I know this blog hasn't been full of interesting things lately, but that's because my life hasn't been full of interesting things. Besides the new food blog and the new puppy, the things that are occupying my mind and time are tasks of drudgery, like filing paperwork, both personal and business, for the past five months or so and getting receipts and bills in order so that I can give all of our tax stuff to our accountant. Another necessary, un-fun task is cleaning my office and getting all the residual kid stuff out of here to make it solely a business office for my husband and me rather than an office for me and a school area for Maddy (she's got her own desk area in her new room). This entails sorting though, tossing, donating, re-organizing and cleaning years of crafts supplies, coloring books, detritus, office supplies and paper work. I'm tired just thinking about it.

But, it has to be done. I can't even contemplate garden planning til I get this burden off my shoulders. I wanted to get it done before my new computer arrived almost a month ago. Obviously that didn't happen, but I need to get on it now, because spring is right around the corner and I need to get seeds ordered and the garden planned!

Another Addition to the Family

This is our new puppy. She doesn't have a name. We are all picky about names and unfortunately can't agree on one yet. She's half lab and half springer spaniel. Like a baby, she sleeps a lot, but she also plays a lot when she's awake. The girls are really enjoying having her around and she's pretty sweet.






UPDATE: She has been named. After weeding through name after name and having many ideas rejected, she is called: Stella. Lucy and Betty were at the top of the list as well, but Stella won out.

100 Things About Me

I've been working on this list for a very long time (since before September). I hesitated to do one, but I always enjoy reading others' lists, so here goes.

1. I got married when I was 18.

2. I grew up in New Mexico in three different towns/cities.

3. I've never been to college.

4. I've got three daughters, but I would like to have one more child. I'm the only one who would, though, so we are pretty much done.

5. I've only had two employers in my whole life.

6. I'm a mostly stay-at-home mom now, though I run our welding business with my husband.

7. At my last job I worked with a guy named Smurf. He really legally changed his name.

8. I am illogically afraid of tsunamis.

9. I don't know how to swim.

10. I don't vaccinate my children anymore.

11. I've never done illegal drugs, not even smoked marijuana, not even once.

12. I would try marijuana if it wasn't illegal. I'm not anti-drug.

13. I've never been really drunk.

14. I don't like wine or beer but do enjoy cocktails.

15. I love cheese. Any cheese, I think. I've never tried a cheese I didn't like.

16. I am passionate about healthy foods and local eating.

17. I would have a home birth if we had a fourth child. I wanted to have a home birth with Juliana, but the insurance situation made it unaffordable.

18. I'm a Christian, but don't currently attend church.

19. I homeschool my girls.

20. I have seriously contemplated harvesting snails from our yard for a dinner, not out of poverty, but out a of an adventurousness and desire to use what we have at hand.

21. I don't like to make phone calls. I really only talk to close friends and family on the phone.

22. I often wonder how old friends are and what they are doing.

23. I hate to see "K" used in place of "C", in such things as creative, creamy, etc. It's not kute cute. It's annoying. I wish "K" would never be misused again.

24. Grammar mistakes are a pet peeve of mine. Especially the misuse of apostrophes. If I had more time I would write letters to companies whenever I see this mistake in their signage or advertising.

25. I make my own soap from lye and oil. A lot of people are afraid of trying it. I was too for a couple of years, then I decided to just do it. I've been making soap regularly ever since.

26. I like to do things for myself. If I can learn to make or do something that I won't have to buy or rely on somebody else for, I generally will learn to make or do it.

27. Thinking about taxes creates an unpleasant physical sensation. I hate paying taxes and everything associated with it makes me very anxious. I don't even like to drive by my accountant's office.

28. I like to have my morning coffee in a very particular fashion. It makes me cranky if things don't go the way they should in regards to my coffee routine.

29. I'm naturally a night person and I don't go to sleep early easily, even if I've gotten up very early in the morning.

30. I am very competitive.

31. I love to play games but I don't like sports.

32. I recently found out that a good friend and former co-worker that I had lost touch with died last June. I was shocked and very sad.

33. This friend is the one who told me I should take a pregnancy test when I was just newly pregnant with Maddy. I didn't have a clue I was pregnant, but apparently she saw something change in me.

34. I'm scared of death.

35. My family and friends and even myself dying sometimes occupies my thoughts at night.

36. Especially after I've had a baby.

37. I believe I've experienced a very mild form of postpartum depression after each birth that manifested itself in a several week long period of general hopelessness and fear and anxiety that started every evening and disappeared in the morning.

38. I married my husband after only knowing him for about 10 weeks.

39. We've been married for 13 years now.

40. I'm a procrastinator.

41. I love to read. I'm always reading a book and I usually bring a book everywhere I go, or at least have it handy in my van. You never know when you'll have a couple minutes to read!

42. I only read one book at a time.

43. I almost never read a book a second time.

44. When I was five I wanted to change my name to Cindy.

45. I used to hate the color of my hair when I was growing up.

46. I really like my hair color now.

47. I hate the thought of my hair graying and I see more and more of them popping out.

48. I don't dislike gray or silver hair on other women. In fact, many women look lovely with it, but it worries me personally.

49. The whole issue of aging worries me generally.

50. I'm scared of the possibility of ghosts existing.

51. I like road trips.

52. I haven't been on a road trip for 2 1/2 years.

53. I love dense fog.

54. I would like to be more knowledgeable about herbal medicine and eventually make more of my own remedies and grow more medicinal herbs.

55. We are planning on raising rabbits for food in the not-to-distant future.

56. We'd eventually like to live on several acres and grow larger portion of our own food.

57. Sometimes when I'm driving by myself and listening to music I feel just for awhile like the girl I was back in the day.

58. I used to dislike lists but now I have lists everywhere. Several shopping lists, a daily to-do list, a task list...

59. I love to sing. I would maybe sing in a public setting if I didn't have extreme stage fright.

60. I'm very glad that we planted honeysuckle in our back yard, because in the middle of summer when our windows are open I can smell it while laying in bed.

61. I don't like fruit that much, but I do like some fruits a lot.

62. I really enjoy cooking and baking.

63. I don't like doing laundry.

64. I do like using a clothesline and I finally even got a wooden drying rack for using in the winter.

65. I cloth diapered all three of my children.

66. I used to dislike eggplant, brussel sprouts, and beets. I now like all three.

67. Despite all my fears, and there are many, I'm pretty adventurous in some things.

68. I'm an adventurous eater. I would try almost anything (edible) once.

69. I've lived in Oregon for more than a decade. The climate suits me.

70. Our 70' cedar blew down in a storm two years ago and now I'm always worried when we get high wind in the winter.

71. I love Greek food.

72. I got had orthodontics in my twenties and now I have a nice straight smile.

73. I've never had a cavity.

74. I cry easily, but wish I didn't.

75. My husband is my best friend.

76. I love aprons.

77. I have an excellent long-term memory. If I've known you for more than a few months, I'm sure I remember many things that have happened that you don't.

78. Having an excellent long-term memory can be embarrassing when you remember people that don't remember you or remember a lot of detail about people you don't know well or haven't seen for a while. I can make you look like a stalker to retain that kind of information, but for some people it's not a choice, that memorization just happens.

79. My short-term memory isn't as good as it used to be. (See #58.)

80. I drink raw milk with no fear of illness.

81. I have a Frappuccino habit.

82. I think hickeys are gross and tacky.

83. I think I might be the only person on Facebook not connecting with their old high school and college friends.

84. I'm almost never sick. I have a strong constitution.

84. I'm a word geek.

85. My vehicle doesn't represent me. I actually don't like it at all, but it's what we have and it's paid off and runs fine, so I can't complain too much.

86. I wish I could travel more. I'd love to be exposed to more of the world, first-hand.

87. I took three years of French in high school and my husband is fluent, but we never speak to each other in French.

88. I have very detailed dreams, most of which I can still remember when I wake up.

89. I haven't seen my sister in eight years.

90. We live across the country from each other.

91. We aren't estranged, just broke.

92. I'm very shy, but I wish I weren't.

93. I didn't attend my 10 year high school reunion, though I promised and crossed my heart I would when Lisa Smith pressed the issue in my senior year of high school.

94. I don't generally swear. I'm not averse to swearing I just usually don't. Unless I've rammed my toe into a chair or sliced into my finger. I've sworn on those occasions.

95. I have a problem with time management.

96. I'm still close with one of my former step-sisters though my mom and her dad divorced more than a decade ago.

97. I was casually waiting for a Mormon missionary to come back from his mission when I met my husband.

98. In high school some of my best friends were Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses.

99. I miss seeing luminarias at Christmas time.

100. My paternal grandmother died when I was almost 10 and I still miss her and feel gypped that she didn't get to stick around longer, because I think she would have loved seeing what has happened since she left.